Fiscal Court Votes To Allocate $430K For PEP Project: Courthouse and Community Center Facelift

Recent photo of the Edmonson County Courthouse front entrance.

Darren Doyle, story and photo:
The Edmonson County Fiscal Court voted on Monday to allocate $430,000 of ARPA funding for a downtown beautification project on behalf of Preserving Edmonson Pride, or PEP.

PEP is a local nonprofit made up of local citizens and business owners that organized in 2019 for the purpose of beautifying areas of the county to improve economic growth. They have made multiple presentations to the Fiscal Court after spending their own money on architectural drawings, research, and other plans; however, until yesterday, they had reached dead ends.

PEP board members have discussed various grants available for these types of projects in different scenarios, but in order to receive them, they either have to be matched with local funds, the projects have to go through a county or city government, or both. On Monday, magistrates voted to allocate the money for a project that would consist of a wrap-around porch at the Edmonson County Community Center that would join the front of the Courthouse with a new set of covered steps.

Judge-Executive Scott Lindsey said after PEP made their most recent presentation to the fiscal court, a project economic development committee was formed to determine a projected cost for the construction project. That committee consisted of magistrates T.J. Massey, Mark Meeks, Mickey Johnson, and PEP board members Andrea Brantley, Shaska Hines, and Jeff Jacobs.

Judge Lindsey also commended the work of the PEP board over the last several years.

"What was presented is going to be a great step for our community," he said. "This is going to be a tremendous upgrade to our town and I feel it will be something we can all be proud of. The work that's been done by the members of PEP has been great and I know they're all working for the betterment of our community."

The Veterans Memorial Wall area greatly improved the look of the courtyard, which was overseen by the previous county governmental administration; however, there is still much to be done. The steps on both buildings are degraded, handrails old and outdated, and the overall look is one that most would agree is tired; however, projects like these in small towns like Edmonson County usually find snags when it comes to funding.

Judge Lindsey said projects like this are really not possible without finding new ways to provide funding, and in this case, that's where ARPA came in.

"When the first guidelines of ARPA came to the county, they were vague and it could only be used for infrastructure," he said. "It wasn't easy trying to allocate all the funding for that here, but then the criteria began to change and it allowed us the freedom to use it in different ways. Basically, anything that would normally be funded through the local government process, and magistrates voted unanimously to allocate part of that funding for the PEP project."